Where will/should nationals be?

Originally posted by JosephM
1.) Statistics, yes, but I have seen only a few flights go to Huston in all my travels.

2.) ASTROWORLD? Are you nuts? Sure, first Six Flags, but dear god! Six Flags is a dump! I've been to WoA and that's one to manny for me.

3.) Hotels. SUPPLY AND DEMAND. People want more hotel rooms near the nats, thus they'll up the prices beyond the nice price of $69 per night (All Stars is only $74)

1. There are 5 or 6 flights out of the fairly small Indianapolis Intl airport on a daily basis to both Orlando and Houston.

2. Who cares, you dont need to go to an amusement park while your down there, remember disney world's parks aren't the whole reason for going there. Anyway there is plenty of other things to do while you are down there anyway.

3. Don't quote me on this, but i am pretty sure the rates were a bit higher than $74 a night for All Star during the championship last year, anyway FIRST is going to work out package deals with hotels in the area, its almost a given. Plus there are group rates and everything..

[Joe Matt]

Originally posted by Johca_Gaorl


Well, I'm pretty sure Houston is a bigger airport than richmond.

But what about Charolet, Cleveland, Orlando, Philidelphia, Pittsburg, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Las Angeles, Anaheim, and many others.

Originally posted by JosephM


But what about Charolet, Cleveland, Orlando, Philidelphia, Pittsburg, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Las Angeles, Anaheim, and many others.

Are you suggesting one of those as the location for the championship?


A: Because Texas is a more centralized location

OR

are you talking about flights?

A: On November 14th (random date i selected) 220 flights will start at LA and end up in Houston, with some detouring in Charolette and Phoenix (although some of the cheaper flights have 5 or 6 detours)

[Johca_Gaorl]

Originally posted by JosephM
But what about Charolet, Cleveland, Orlando, Philidelphia, Pittsburg, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Las Angeles, Anaheim, and many others.

All large airports, I didn't realize you traveled so much. However, I see quite a few flights to Houston and I travel a lot also, as my dad lives in WA state and was in the miltary 22 years.

Houston
13th largest airport by passengers and movements (more than anything in FL)

This is in the WORLD by the way, so essentially, you are wrong
No hard feelings.

info from www.airports.org (use the traffic data thing on the left)

[Madison]

Originally posted by JosephM


2.) ASTROWORLD? Are you nuts? Sure, first Six Flags, but dear god! Six Flags is a dump! I've been to WoA and that's one to manny for me.

Six Flags over Texas was the first Six Flags park. It opened on August 4, 1961. Astroworld opened four years later, on June 1, 1965. It didn't become a member of the Six Flags family until 1975.

There are some very, very nice Six Flags parks. It's more about management than it is about being a chain. Six Flags over Georgia is gorgeous and has amazing rides. Six Flags Darien Lake is also very pretty, but it's a much smaller park plagued by an awful wooden coaster and a clone.

Astroworld's problems are two-fold, from what I can see. First, it has a bad reputation for cleanliness among enthusiasts. This uncleanliness doesn't make the environment fun.

Second, and perhaps more importantly, it also doesn't produce a lot of revenue for the chain. As a result, it receives very little attention. Many of its rides come from the old Bally Ride Rotation program that was going on during the mid-1980's. Batman: The Escape came from Six Flags Magic Mountain via Six Flags Great Adventure. Ultratwister came from Six Flags Great Adventure, but was modified to meet local fire codes (the lift hill was redesigned to be at a 45 degree angle to facilitate evacuations in case of fire versus the original 90 degree lift). Excalibur, the park's first coaster, was removed in favor a Vekoma SLC (another clone.)

Astroworld's shining star was Texas Tornado. This coaster is a portable fair coaster that traveled a lot with German fairs. Six Flags bought it and brought it to Houston in 1998. It operated for less than one week, and then Six Flags decided to try to redesign its trains to make riders more comfortable, and possibly reduce the forces involved in the ride. Texas Tornado was the most powerful coaster in existence.

I've just learned that, as of this morning, Six Flags Astroworld has begun dismantling Texas Tornado. RIP.

Now, really, I can think of no reason whatsoever I'd like to go to Astroworld.

Originally posted by M. Krass


I've just learned that, as of this morning, Six Flags Astroworld has begun dismantling Texas Tornado. RIP.

You have got to be kidding?!!

That ride was awesome

[evulish]

Bah. Airplanes. Who needs em? Take a bus! (That's how we got from PA->FL ) Huh. 24 hours on a bus isn't as much fun as it sounds

[Eric Bareiss]

I don't care where it is as long as there's robots.

[Mike Schroeder]

Hey time to throw in what ever change is in my pockets




okkk Disney=good parks nice Internationally known arena


Huston= A park and an Intertionally known arena (plus you can tell your football team that you played in the Astrodome and they didnt)


The way I look at it is this (disscussed in an earlier thread) Disney supplies a location with increased saftey at all times (on of the main reasons that the $$ goes ^ is prob the increased load it has and the amount of staff they must provide)


Huston, Pheniox, where ever else...... will Provide security while at competition so after that your teams are SOL

BUT and i mean a BIG BUT (not me)

who cares If First is gonna hold the nats in Huston Pheniox or or my back yard for that matter, teams are still gonna go and still have a good time out of this so if that is a bad thing (having fun) dont go to disney world for the nats either just sit at home and wonder what if


(i have a cold and a temp and all that good stuff and i am chocked full of Drugs (the good over the counter kinds) so if no of this makes sense let me know (email aim anyhting i dont care) and will explain)


now if you dont mind i am going to sleep until i gotta wake up and goto work or somthing i dont remember

[Andy Baker]

Originally posted by Mr.Volcano
[color=darkblue]
who cares If First is gonna hold the nats in Huston Pheniox or or my back yard for that matter, teams are still gonna go and still have a good time

Exactly. Mr. Volcano erupts with wisdom.

They could hold this thing in a cornfield in Kansas and we would all still have a ball. The inspiration we all experience is though the interaction between people, no matter where we "play". FIRST is not about robots or which roller coaster we get to ride... it is about people.

AB

[Madison]

Originally posted by Andy Baker


FIRST is not about robots or which roller coaster we get to ride... it is about people.

AB

Oh, sure - maybe for you

I focus a lot on the extracurricular activities associated with competitions because I'm not particularly good at handling competition. It drives me crazy in so many different ways. By that time, I want to be there to support my team - by cheering, or fixing, or talking it up with others - but I also need a break. Competition isn't my place to shine. That opportunity belongs to my team members and my robot. I'd much rather be watching from the sidelines, or otherwise keeping myself sane than having another breakdown in front of the whole world.

But, admittedly, if FIRST were full of people just like me, it would probably never work. Don't be like me, kids. I'm bad.

[Joe Matt]

You're not that bad Micheal

I'm also kinda like that, I try to work, but then I just crash. Too much stress and too much agony. It's like being a doctor, anymoment, at anytime, anything can go wrong.

[Elgin Clock]

Originally posted by Andy Baker
FIRST is not about robots or which roller coaster we get to ride... it is about people.

AB

Yes but it is about lots of young people that need something (semi-constructive) to do in the off-time of competition weekends. Just imagine if the amout of people who went to Nats. were just left with nothing to do in the off-time.

I know we are all people who belong to a great organization with great values known as FIRST, but everyone get's bored. And when you get bored you tend to do stupid things. Just think if the extra-curricular activities that are at a place like Disney are not there this year. There will be a lot of people doing Stupid things, It's human nature.

"One bad apple ruins the whole bunch"

All I ask, is to let us apples have something fun to do when we are done with a long day of intense competition.

^My 2 cents!!!

[Dave Flowerday]

Yes but it is about lots of young people that need something (semi-constructive) to do in the off-time of competition weekends. Just imagine if the amout of people who went to Nats. were just left with nothing to do in the off-time.

Back when I was a student on the Holland High/Haworth team, I distinctly remember the most fun, most exciting competition that I attended being the Midwest regional. It was my (and our program's) 3rd year and it was the first time we'd gone to a competition other than Nationals. There was just something really awesome about the crowd being really close to the field, and the bleachers being full and noisy. I think a lot of students who go to Disney are allowed to leave the competition and go into the parks during the day as long as they're back for their own robot's matches. If the distraction of the parks wasn't there, we'd have everyone watching the matches, cheering teams on. Maybe teams would get to know other teams better.

Why is it that we need something "fun" like Disney to supplement the competition? I always thought the competition itself was more than enough fun. Besides, how much time is there to fill at night after the competition? After you go back to the hotel and get some dinner, the evening's mostly gone by then. I know by that time I was usually so wiped out that I just wanted to watch a little TV and go to bed to be rested up for the next day!

[Joe Matt]

Originally posted by Dave Flowerday

Why is it that we need something "fun" like Disney to supplement the competition? I always thought the competition itself was more than enough fun. Besides, how much time is there to fill at night after the competition? After you go back to the hotel and get some dinner, the evening's mostly gone by then. I know by that time I was usually so wiped out that I just wanted to watch a little TV and go to bed to be rested up for the next day!

We need something to entertain us. Simple as that. Sure, you get tired, but some of us will party untill 4 am if we could. The simple fact remains that the option of Disney is there, you can go, or you can stay at the hotel. As many locations we recomended, many activites are far away, unreachable by foot, not open after the pits close, and other things.

Sure, we can go to see one thing here and there at Huston, but MANY things close after the pits. And many kids will want to do something. That's when FIRST will get a bad name.

It dosn't matter how manny Brandon's there are in the world, or how many Kamen's, the fact is that once we screw up one thing, it will haunt us untill we disban. It's a fact of life. Keep it cool at Disney, or risk screwing up at a city and loosing the privalage of going somewhere for nats.